First ever Rail Wellbeing Live event welcomes Ruby Wax, Dr Rangan Chatterjee, and Dr Dawn Harper among star speakers: Rail Wellbeing Live Coffee

Wednesday 30 Sep 2020

First ever Rail Wellbeing Live event welcomes Ruby Wax, Dr Rangan Chatterjee, and Dr Dawn Harper among star speakers

Region & Route:
Southern: Kent
| Southern
  • Rail Wellbeing Live on 4th/5th November set to be industry’s biggest ever free wellbeing event
  • Aims to ‘revolutionise’ thinking around health and wellbeing in rail industry
  • More than 140 speakers and 80 pick ‘n’ mix sessions across 2 day virtual event.

Mental health advocate and entertainer Ruby Wax, BBC Breakfast's resident doctor Dr Rangan Chatterjee and Embarrassing Bodies star Dr Dawn Harper are among the health and wellbeing speakers to star at this year's inaugural Rail Wellbeing Live

The 2-day virtual event being held on November 4th and 5th is focussed on tackling the historic issues around wellbeing found among the 240,000-strong UK rail workforce where suicides are among the highest in the UK workforce at 1.6 times the national average. *

Ill-health in the rail industry is estimated to cost £790m per year with a 3.9% absence rate more than double the private sector average.  Poor mental health overall costs the UK economy £35bn per year. And this year, the British Medical Association have said COVID-19 could have considerable consequences on people’s mental health

In the past few years, efforts have been made by the industry to address this with more research into mental health and more investment into occupational health services. For example, last year the RSSB launched the ‘With You In Mind’ employment service, giving employees easy access to 1-2-1s with mental health experts.

Mental health advocate and entertainer Ruby Wax, BBC Breakfast's resident doctor Dr Rangan Chatterjee and Embarrassing Bodies star Dr Dawn Harper, are among the health and wellbeing speakers to star at this year's inaugural Rail Wellbeing Live .

The 2-day virtual event being held on November 4th and 5th is focussed on tackling the historic issues around wellbeing found among the 240,000 strong UK rail workforce where suicides are among the highest of industry at 1.6 times the national average.

Ill-health in the rail industry is estimated to cost £316m per year with a 3.9% absence rate more than double the private sector average. Poor mental health overall costs the UK economy £35bn per year. And this year, the British Medical Association have said COVID-19 could have considerable consequences on people’s mental health.

To help tackle this Rail Wellbeing Live has been set-up by the by the Rail Wellbeing Alliance, a cross industry group with the involvement of dozens of train operating companies, suppliers and bodies. Many thousands of people from across the industry are expected to take part and watch online.

John Halsall, chair of the Rail Wellbeing Alliance and managing director for Network Rail’s Southern Region, said: “We know that some 60% of workers have experienced mental health issues. And this year especially has seen all our health and wellbeing challenged in the most unexpected ways. It is such an important time to be shining a light on some pretty tough issues, like loneliness, relationships and depression.

“Rail Wellbeing Live has the opportunity to revolutionise attitudes to well-being in our industry. It’s about starting a conversation and encouraging everyone to share and talk about issues relating to health, creating an irresistible positive energy across the industry that will make it safer and better for all of us.”

Rail Wellbeing Live will address all aspects of health in an engaging way, with speakers chosen based on their accessibility. For example, Dr Rangan Chatterjee, author of international bestseller ‘Feel Better in 5’, will be talking about how to change to a healthier lifestyle.

Ruby Wax will be talking about lessons from her number one bestseller, ‘A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled’. Viewers can also take part in activities like laughing yoga or guided meditation, all from the comfort of their own home (or mess room).

Other speakers over the two days include Channel 4's Embarrassing Bodies' Dr Dawn Harper, happiness expert and bestselling author Andy Cope and Government advisor on wellbeing at work, Professor Dame Carol Black. [COVID]

Seven topic areas are being covered at the event each with their own speakers and panel discussions which subscribers can participate in. They cover Healthy Behaviours, Occupational Health, Mental Health, Occupational Hygiene, Fatigue, Health & Wellbeing in Business and Musculoskeletal Disorders. The industry has already committed to continuing the event on an annual basis.

Phil Brooks, from Ramsgate in Kent was involved in two fatal incidents as a high-speed train driver involving people trespassing on the track, and spent years tackling mental health issues as a result.

Phil said:"The incidents I was involved in were traumatising and had a severe impact on my mental health, and my family too, as I became withdrawn, reflecting on the impact of what happened. I decided to turn this into a positive and I'm now happy to speak out and share my experience for the benefit of others. We all need to talk about the issues facing us and I commend the Rail Wellbeing Live event for all it's doing in shining a light on occupational health in our industry."

Dozens of suppliers to the rail industry are taking part in supporting the new approach to health and wellbeing. Andrew Vosper-Baines has worked in Balfour Beatty’s Track Geometry Services for more than 13 years and has seen first-hand the pressures working in the rail industry can bring. He also has had past issues with his own mental health at work. He now manages a WhatsApp Wellbeing group at his company for people who may be suffering in silence.

He said: “I am passionate and committed to doing whatever I can to merge these experiences and help those in our business and the rail industry who may be suffering. Rail Wellbeing Live is setting a new standard for our industry as to how we prioritise the health and wellbeing of our workforce and will have a lasting effect on the industry, especially to those who need it the most.”

The event was originally meant to be held in a football stadium but Covid-19, and the need for social distancing, changed that, with organisers having to move online instead.

Michelle O’Sullivan, the organiser of the event for the RSSB and a chartered clinical psychologist, said: “The changing of the event from real life to virtual was as much an opportunity as a challenge. It’s enabled us to get speakers from a wider range of disciplines who might not have been able to travel on the day and tap into expertise the length and breadth of the world. We even have a speaker joining us from Australia. In the old world we would have been limited to how many people we could fit in a conference hall, but by going online we hope that we can reach an even bigger audience for Rail Wellbeing Live.”

Other key speakers at Rail Wellbeing Live include entrepreneur Carole Spiers, the 'Sleep Scientist' Dr Sophie Bostock, nutritionist Nicki Williams and pain expert Lorimer Moseley.

 ENDS

Notes to Editors

  1. The 1.6 suicide figure above is partially reflective that the suicide rate in men, who make up over 80% of the rail workforce, which is higher than among women, and account for over 75% of suicides. https://womeninrail.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/WR-Industry-Survey-Report-December-2015.pdf, https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/suicidesintheunitedkingdom/2018registrations
  2. A full case-study involving Phil Brooks is available in the resource library below. Interviews with all those quoted available.
  3. Anyone can subscribe to follow the talks and events of Rail Wellbeing Live for free. Go to: www.railwellbeinglive.co.uk or contact: bryony@railwellbeinglive.co.uk or scan the QR code attached to this release.

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Scott Wilson
Media Manager
Network Rail
07395 389658
scott.wilson@networkrail.co.uk

About Network Rail

We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.

Follow us on Twitter: @networkrail
Visit our online newsroom: www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk